Friday, December 14, 2012

‘Ulu‘ulu: The Henry Ku‘ualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawai‘i

The next episode of Jordan’s Journal is an exciting one, and
one that may have you glued to your computer hours after watching it.

Former House Rep. Heather Giugni appears with Rep. Jo Jordan
to talk about ‘Ulu’ulu, an online repository of Hawaii film footage dating as
far back as 1928.

After watching the episode, I browsed the website, http://ulululu.hawaii.edu, and found a
number of moments in our Hawaii history that I would never have been able to
see before. Take a look at this political goodie, it’s a roundtable
discussion with the candidates for the U.S. House 1st Congressional District
special election to replace US Rep. Cecil Heftel for the remainder of his term
in 1986. You’ll recognize Hawaii politicians Democrat Steve Cobb, Republican
Patricia Saiki, Democrat Mufi Hannemann, and Democrat Neil Abercrombie. This is
the election that took Abercrombie to Congress.

The website is part of ‘Ulu‘ulu: The Henry Ku‘ualoha Giugni
Moving Image Archive of Hawai‘i at UH West Oahu. Its mission is to “perpetuate
and share the rich moving image heritage of Hawai‘i through the preservation of
film and videotape related to the history and culture of Native Hawaiians and
the people of Hawai‘i.”

At “The Archive,” they collect donated moving images related
to Hawaii and its history from local businesses, organizations, and individuals,
and staff work to catalog, preserve, and give the public access to these
historic items.

The videos online are just a few of the 17,000 videos,
including 500 films, that “The Archive” holds. Because of copyright you won’t
be able to watch the entire videos online, but you can view 10% of each video.
If you find something that you are interesting in learning more about, the
website instructs you to contact them or the original owners of the copyrighted
material.